Chapter 75: Flames in the Crater

Chapter 75: Flames in the Crater "Next up, let’s begin the second transformation!" Carlos steadied himself and first pulled out an exquisite jar from his storage space. Opening it up, rich spiritual energy wafted out—inside was a gray-white mysterious fluid that sparkled with cold streams of light. This was the secret bone liquid essential for drawing skeleton shield guard transformation mystical circles, more valuable than mithril liquid and way more complex to make. Carlos carefully poured out the secret bone liquid and began drawing the skeleton shield guard transformation mystical circle... Compared to regular skeleton guard mystical circles, skeleton shield guard circles were a whole lot more complex to draw. Throughout the entire process, he had to be careful and precise, getting it right in one shot without any slip-ups. Fortunately, Carlos knew his stuff, and soon a gray-white array appeared on the brown sand surface. "Number 1, take your position in the center!" "Clatter! Clatter!" Purple Thornblade Guard #1 stepped into the center of the transformation mystical circle. Next, Carlos pulled out a piece of Fearless Shield Equipment, placing it in the secondary position. Then he took out the monster corpses he’d prepared earlier, filling up the numerous sacrifice positions around the outer circle. Everything was ready. Spiritual energy surged within Carlos as cold Death Herald energy flowed into the mystical circle. Right away, gray-white flames rapidly ignited along the array patterns. At the same time, Carlos began the mysterious transformation chant: "&&&&&@!^@" At the numerous sacrifice positions, monster corpses served as fuel, rapidly dissolving and transforming into pure energy that fed into the array patterns. Gray-white flames gradually intensified, blazing upward until they covered everything within the array. Seeing the flames reach the right intensity, Carlos continued his whispers. He immediately started pulling out items that gave off rich spiritual energy from his storage space: Fallen Flame Fangs, Black Rock Essence, Succulent Flower Bones... All of it went straight into the gray-white flames... "BOOM!" Gray-white flames instantly shot higher. The entire mystical circle now looked like a massive torch rising from the desert. Burning! Burning! Burning! Whatever was happening inside the array was completely hidden—only continuous bone cracking and shield splitting sounds came from within the flames... Carlos’s mind was crystal clear as he focused completely, continuously performing the final chanting... ... "&&@!&&@!&&@!" Suddenly, a terrifying presence descended. At the mystical circle’s center, a tall black shadow faintly appeared. The moment that shadow showed up, the surging gray-white flames seemed to find their target, rushing straight toward it... The shadow absorbed everything as the surging gray-white flames were visibly drawn in, beginning to thin out... After the last wisp of gray-white flame was absorbed, the whispers ended, and Carlos’s eyes lit up with surprise and joy. At the array’s center stood an absolutely terrifying skeleton monster. Its towering body measured a full ten feet tall, and every bone making up its frame was incredibly robust, far surpassing the regular guards. Its thick left bone hand gripped a heavy crimson large shield, fully six feet long and incredibly heavy. Carved on the shield face was a roaring tiger-lion beast head, giving off an indestructible vibe. Its powerful right bone hand still held the familiar purple-striped greatsword, though much larger than before. The purple thornblade patterns on the sword body were more intricate than before, faintly depicting a glorious purple thornblade. This was the Purple Thornblade clan sword’s essence being further awakened during the second transformation, adapting to the shield guard’s ten-foot frame. "Ha! Now that’s a Purple Thornblade Shield Guard!" Carlos eagerly walked up to the Purple Thornblade Shield Guard and began checking out this monster’s stats. [Purple Thornblade Skeleton Shield Guard] [Health: 400 (Constitution×50)] [Strength: 18] [Constitution: 8] [Speed: 3] [Skills: Purple Thornblade·Variant, Purple Thornblade Shield Tactics (1+3) level] "Incredible! Eighteen Strength points! Twenty-nine total attribute points! This is enough to steamroll low-tier Psionics users and even rank among the heavy hitters in mid-tier!" In the Desolate Desert, most monsters had spirituality below 15 and wouldn’t stand a snowball’s chance in hell against Purple Thornblade Shield Guards. With just this one, Carlos could roam freely throughout the entire Desolate Desert. Even better, it had perfectly inherited the bonds from both Fearless Shield Equipment and Purple Thornblade clan swords: Fearless Purple Thornblade. [Purple Thornblade·Variant: Powerful talent born from Purple Thornblade clan sword and Ersbah First Legion Fearless Shield Equipment essence fusion (1) Purple Thornblade Shield Tactics level +3 (2) +10% damage and +10% defense when using Purple Thornblade Shield Tactics (3) Bond: Fearless Purple Thornblade! When Purple Thornblade Shield Guards fight, resonance occurs. Each additional guard enhances 1 Strength, 1 Constitution, and grants immunity to negative effects. (Each Constitution point can last 10 minutes)] "Fully activated, Strength will hit a terrifying 30 points, Constitution 20 points, immune to negative effects, with maximum duration of 200 minutes!" This was a complete game-changer. With stats capable of crushing mid-tier (Spirituality 20-29) monsters, Carlos felt absolutely bulletproof. In the middle of all this excitement, those measly 3 Speed points stuck out like a sore thumb. "Speed is still just 3." Three Speed points were pretty darn slow compared to that Strength. But this was because shield equipment was so heavy—you really couldn’t move fast while lugging around a shield. As for why he didn’t consider ordering skeleton shield guards to drop their shields and pick up the pace— This was because the skeleton soldiers, Purple Thornblade clan swords, and Fearless Shield Equipment had completely fused together. Under normal circumstances, wherever the main skeleton soldier went, the Purple Thornblade clan swords and Fearless Shield Equipment would show up at the same time. The real reason was that clan swords and shield equipment served as the skeleton shield guards’ attribute power sources. If he ordered them to forcibly separate beyond a certain distance, the skeleton shield guards’ stats would definitely take a major hit—completely defeating the purpose. "Slow speed doesn’t matter much. Most monsters will come charging at us—no need to chase them down." Carlos wasn’t worried about this weakness. Besides, after the third transformation into Black Knights, the speed issues would naturally work themselves out. "Go stand guard around the perimeter!" After checking the stats, Carlos immediately had Purple Thornblade Shield Guard #1 leave the mystical circle. There were still eleven Purple Thornblade Guards waiting for their transformation. "Purple Thornblade Guard #2, you’re up!" The second Purple Thornblade Guard clattered into the mystical circle. Carlos began the second procedure... The third... The fourth... ... The twelfth... "All done!" Dawn broke, dim sunlight spread across the earth, lighting up the crater bottom. Twelve towering Purple Thornblade Shield Guards stood in perfect, imposing formation, soul fires within their bone frames ice-cold, giving off incredible killing intent. Carlos stood before them. Despite not sleeping a wink all night, his face showed no signs of fatigue. His expression was pure excitement. "This terrifying presence, this incredible intimidation factor—worth every bit of effort it took to successfully transform you!" Beside the Purple Thornblade Shield Guards stood ten ’shorter’ Redrose Guards in formation. Looking at the Redrose Guards, Carlos frowned slightly: "Weak. Way too weak!" Originally Carlos had been pretty satisfied with these Redrose Guards. But compared to the Purple Thornblade Shield Guards, they didn’t measure up. "These ten Redrose Guards need to get killing, and fast, building up enough death energy as quickly as possible to meet transformation requirements." Carlos was fired up, eager to get their ’monster grinding’ underway. With a grand gesture, he stored away all his skeleton soldiers as his Crimson Gold Feathered Serpent Wings spread behind him. Just as he was about to take off, he suddenly remembered: "Oh right, there’s still one summoning slot open." Without wasting time, he pulled out monster corpses and cast Skeleton Revival. The moment the twenty-third ordinary skeleton soldier was born, Carlos didn’t even bother looking before storing it in his summoning space. Wings beating hard, he shot skyward as his figure quickly disappeared over the horizon...